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| Galeazzo Mondella (called Moderno) Apollo ca. 1512 limestone relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
from Syringa
Orpheus liked the glad personal quality
Of the things beneath the sky. Of course, Eurydice was a part
Of this. Then one day, everything changed. He rends
Rocks into fissures with lament. Gullies, hummocks
Can't withstand it. The sky shudders from one horizon
To the other, almost ready to give up wholeness.
Then Apollo quietly told him: "Leave it all on earth.
Your lute, what point? Why pick at a dull pavan few care to
Follow, except a few birds of dusty feather,
Not vivid performances of the past." But why not?
All other things must change too.
The seasons are no longer what they once were,
But it is the nature of things to be seen only once,
As they happen along, bumping into other things, getting along
Somehow. That's where Orpheus made his mistake.
Of course Eurydice vanished into the shade;
She would have even if he hadn't turned around.
No use standing there like a gray stone toga as the whole wheel
Of recorded history flashes past, struck dumb, unable to utter an intelligent
Comment on the most thought-provoking element in its train.
Only love stays on the brain, and something these people,
These other ones, call life. Singing accurately
So that the notes mount straight up out of the well of
Dim noon and rival the tiny, sparkling yellow flowers
Growing around the brink of the quarry, encapsulates
The different weights of the things.
– John Ashbery (1977)
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| Hans Daucher Annunciation 1518 limestone relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Peter Flötner Allegory of Justice (goldsmith's model) ca. 1540-46 limestone relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Georg Schweigger Susanna and the Elders 1641 limestone relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Georg Schweigger St John the Baptist preaching 1645 limestone relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Georg Schweigger Annunciation to Zacharias 1645 limestone relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Leone Leoni Portrait of Emperor Charles V ca. 1555 bronze relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Giambologna Allegory of Francesco I de' Medici ca. 1561 bronze relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Anonymous Artist working in Rome Portrait of Pope Paul V Borghese ca. 1640 bronze relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Anonymous Artist working in Rome Portrait of Pope Urban VIII Barberini ca. 1650-1700 bronze relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Francesco Segala Leda and the Swan before 1597 colored wax relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Francesco Segala Bust of a Young Knight before 1597 colored wax relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Daniel Neuberger Death of Emperor Ferdinand III as symbolizing Transience ca. 1660 colored wax relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Caspar Bernhard Hardy Artemisia mourning over her Husband's Remains ca. 1775-1800 colored wax relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
